Hi, my name is Allie, and I am a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University Bloomington. I am in the last year of my program, where I study how a cell determines its fate during development. Specifically, I study this using the ever extraordinary model organism Drosophila melanogaster, also known as the fruit fly! Though due to financial circumstances (explained further below) I will not be able to afford to finish the final year of my Ph.D. program on my journey to become a professor. Therefore I am trying to raise the money to help pay just the loan payments on my loans for the rest of my graduate career such that I don't have to leave graduate school with so little left.

Growing up, I knew I always wanted to be a scientist, but being from a low-income family, I never knew if that would be possible. Growing up, we lost our family home to foreclosure, following which my mother, two younger brothers, and myself lived with my great-grandfather. After a few years, my mom was able to get us into state-subsidized housing. This time of immense financial struggle in my life taught me resilience and to always be a fighter.

As a first-generation college student working part-time during high school, I struggled with everything from SAT prep to college applications. Still, I got accepted into my dream school, Stonehill College. Though with college came loans, and I worked tirelessly to get loans through the government, but unfortunately, due to the foreclosure and my mom's financial struggle to raise three young kids, she didn't have the credit to co-sign federal loans. My grandmother had the credit to help co-sign my loans, but as a grandparent, she couldn't co-sign the federal loans, so I sought out private loans. I just wanted to go to college. I just wanted to be a scientist.

During college, I excelled. I fell even deeper in love with science and got hands-on experience in multiple lab experiences. I worked in a lab at Stonehill College for three years of my undergraduate experience, including two full-time research summers and a part-time internship in Sevilla, Spain, at the Developmental Biology Institute. During my internship, I recognized a deep passion for developmental biology and investigating how cells determine their fate during development.

Before beginning my Ph.D. program, I had the experience of working in the Dominican Republic as an English as a second language high school teacher in La Romana. There I used my English classroom to foster a science laboratory program (the first of its kind at the school). We performed experiments from dissolving the shell of an egg to extracting DNA from various fruits. Watching students fall in love with science in a hands-on way solidified my passion for wanting to be a science educator. Specifically wanting to be a science educator at the university level, helping first-generation college students as my undergraduate professors helped me.

This led me to Indiana University Bloomington, where I am finishing my Ph.D. in Genetics in the lab of Justin Kumar, studying cell fate determination during development. During the past 4-years, I have become a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and their inclusion in STEM, co-founding the Biology LGBTQ+ group at IU, I have worked tirelessly in science policy initiatives with the American Society of Microbiology, I began writing with the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, I engage in science outreach with the public, I co-founded a laptop upcycling program (IUpcycle) to help get technology to underserved students at IU, etc. All of this is on top of my bench work studying cell fate determination, where I have all but finalized two scientific manuscripts on my work.

The unfortunate downside of my loans is as they are private, they are only deferred for 48 months (4 years) for graduate school, but a Ph.D. in Genetics is on average 5-6 years in length, leaving me without deferment for the last year of my Ph.D. program. As a graduate student at IUB I only make enough to cover my daily living expenses leaving nothing to cover my loans. Coming from a low-income family leaves me with no options for who I can turn to for help. So even though it embarrasses me to ask for help and admit I need help, I am resilient, and I am a fighter.

All I have ever wanted to do is be a scientist and an educator. My goal after graduate school is to be a professor at a smaller liberal arts college where I can help shape the future of STEM by assisting students from lower-income backgrounds as I did.

Unfortunately, without being able to find the funds to pay for my student loans for this next year, I will be left without the choice but to leave my Ph.D. program and my dream of being a science educator behind. My entire life, I have wanted to break the cycle of poverty and help the low-income student realize their potential and show them that the science lab can be for them too. Unfortunately, that won't be the case if I can stay in the lab myself.

If you got this far, even $1 will help me stay in graduate school this year and get my Ph.D.